The Vendeleer Brothers Book 3: Nightmare on Holly
Chapter 9: Reflections

Twelve year old Joey stormed into her house, soaking wet because some kids had pushed her into the creek. She dropped her bookbag and then took off her soggy shoes. She was done crying for now, and she didn’t want her father to see that she was wet again. So silently, she ran to her room and peeled of her clothes and then ran to the bathroom to wash some of the mud out of her hair and off her face.

When she got out of the bathroom, her curly brown hair still wet, she paused. The whole house smelled of cinnamon now. Slowly, she walked into the kitchen to see a small nine year old boy with curly brown hair poking at some freshly baked snickerdoodles.

Jack.

Her younger brother.

“I think I put too much cinnamon in them again.”

“That’s ok. I like them with extra cinnamon.”

Jack shrugged and then handed her one. She silently took it and put it into her mouth, trying not to think of the hurtful things Annika had said to her earlier.

“I cleaned up the puddles you made from walking in.” he said softly. “Did they push you into the creek again?”

“Yeah.”

Jack jumped up onto the counter and took a swig of milk.

“Can’t Dad do something?”

“He’s already tried, remember? He just got yelled at by their stupid parents. It only made things worse…”

Joey felt a tear roll down her cheek, and she wiped it away bitterly.

“I hate this.” she sniffed, swiping another one of her brother’s cookies. “I don’t think I’ll ever have any friends.”

Jack smiled and handed his sister a glass of milk.

“Don’t worry Joey. I’m your friend. And I’m not going anywhere.”

“...I’m not going anywhere…”

Joey stared at the canister of cinnamon on the counter, losing herself in her memories. It was interesting how she could hold such ambivalent feelings towards a spice. Cinnamon contained some of her happiest moments, and yet filled her with a tremendous amount of guilt.

But she couldn’t focus on that. It was time for her to get to work.

However, as much as she tried not to think about it as she got dressed, the words Ramona had written still bounced around in her head.

Joey Washburn, do not despair, and do not give up hope. They are still out there.

She wasn’t sure how to take this. For fifteen years, she had been certain they were dead. But if they weren’t, then where were they? What was happening to them? Joey’s stomach churned as she thought about everything, and she did her best to push it from her mind.

It was time to get to work Joey. Focus.

She was to be meeting the others in the Resident’s courtyard, where they apparently housed any PDU members who had abilities. Currently, it was just Shaq and Ramona, but that was soon to change.

When she arrived, Ian and Roderick were already there, sitting on two benches far apart from each other. Roderick was obviously still visibly upset over the events of the night before, and Ian looked like he hadn’t slept well. Joey went and sat down next to him.

“So I assume Roderick is still mad at us.” she said softly, adjusting her large glasses. Ian raised a brow.

“He’ll get over it.”

Joey fiddled with her long necklace, twirling the feather through her fingers.

“Thank you for coming over last night by the way. It really helped.”

Ian gave a little chuckle and rubbed his bruised neck.

“No problem. We’ll have to do it again sometime. After all, I would have beaten you if things hadn’t gotten crazy.”

Joey hesitated. She suddenly had an urge to share some of what she had been thinking about, but she had never told anyone before.

“I… lost my Dad and younger brother when I was thirteen because of… a spirit.” she said quietly. “I thought they were dead this entire time, but… after reading what Ramona wrote… I’m beginning to think that maybe they aren’t.”

Ian sat there silently, processing this information.

“I can see why that might trouble you.” he responded. “I can’t even imagine. I mean-if I ever lost Roderick…”

He trailed off, staring at the ground, and then turned to look at her gravely.

“Thank you for trusting me with this. I imagine it’s not easy.”

Joey gave a sigh of relief, feeling better now that she had gotten that off her chest. She was also glad that Ian wasn’t asking any questions. She wasn’t sure if she would ever be ready to share her full story with anyone. She could hardly bare to think about it herself.

A moment later, Brian and Jordyn showed up. The five of them were awkwardly silent for a minute, not knowing what to say after the events of yesterday. Luckily, they didn’t have to think of anything, for Shaq came out, a couple of people with him.

“So I assume everyone heard about… the burger incident?” Shaq asked. Everyone nodded, not feeling like bringing up the other incident with whatever the Kishnu/Roderick thing had been.

“We have a couple of new people today. This is Shannon, who Brian met last night, and this is Everett. I think a couple of you guys actually met him in Serenity Hill.”

Joey turned her attention to the fidgety old man wearing thin glasses and a bolo tie. She remembered him from the brief time in the book shop in Serenity Hill, and finally found herself thinking of something other than her brother and father.

“Um...hello.” the old man said nervously. Jordyn stood up, and Joey could tell that she was ready to get right down to business.

“Alright. Let’s get started. First, I wasn’t to see what Shannon can do.” she stated, folding her arms. The blonde swallowed and picked at her fingernails.

“Um… Well… I can’t exactly… control it that well…” she mumbled.

Everyone simply looked at her expectantly.

So with a sigh, she put down her bag and then looked around. She then turned her attention towards a potted fern, and began staring at it intently. After about thirty seconds of this, her face was extremely red and she looked about ready to pop a vein. She broke her concentration and started gasping.

“Sorry, I -I don’t know how-to do it on command just yet… It-usually just… happens.”

No one looked very impressed by this, which seemed to embarrass her. Brian, however, kept looking at the plant thoughtfully.

“Shannon, how about this time, try to think of something that makes you really angry.”

In response, she shook her head.

“Well, i don’t like to be angry. I’ve been trying really hard lately to be more Christ-like.”

Jordyn kind of scoffed at this, but it made Joey think for a moment. She thought she had read something when she went through the Bible.

“But… didn’t Jesus even get angry? I thought I remembered a part where he overturned some tables and kicked people out of the temple because they were disrespecting it.” she commented.

Shannon paused, a rather dumbfounded look on her face.

“Oh… I… I guess that’s true…”

“Yeah, and suppressing your emotions is really not a good thing to do.” Roderick told her with a glance at his brother. “I learned that the hard way in the last town we went to…”

With that thought in mind, she stared at the potted plant again, getting a sour look on her face. Slowly, the plant started to shake, and then, they all watched in awe as it rose an inch off the ground. But that wasn’t the only one. All of the plants suddenly shot themselves up a few feet into the air, hovered there, and then fell back down.

“Woah! What did you think about?” Shaq asked. Shannon seemed a bit hesitant to say.

“My ex-husband.” she finally harrumphed.

They all nodded in approval.

“We’ll have to work on that.” Jordyn told her, looking more impressed now. “Shaq, have you tried your thing on Everett yet?”

“Yup. Nothing.”

As everyone began to talk about all the possibilities with this, Joey suddenly put a hand on her head in pain. She was unexpectedly hit with a sharp stabbing pain in her temple and drowned out all sound. It stayed that way for a few seconds, and then subsided.

“Joey?”

Joey blinked the stars away and looked up to see that everyone was staring at her.

“I-I’m going to go to the bathroom…” she murmured.

Then, she hurried off down one of the hallways. She had never had a headache like that since she could remember. It was strange… It left her with a dull ache behind the eyes and a sudden exhaustion…

As soon as she got to the bathroom, she collapsed to the floor and lay there, feeling like there was a house on top of her. When she finally got some of her energy back, she pulled herself up and splashed her face with water. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye…

Joey turned around suspiciously at one of the stalls that were slightly ajar.

“Is someone else in here?” she called out, her voice echoing in the small restroom.

No one answered.

Joey narrowed her eyes, feeling like something was off. Slowly, she went over to the bathroom stall, and then pushed the door open. A man was standing there, his back to her. Joey raised a brow.

“Isn’t this the women’s restroom?” she asked, not feeling like dealing with perverts at the moment. The man slowly turned to her, and Joey jumped back in surprise. The man’s eyes were glowing bright green, and he smiled. His crazed expression was melting off his face, blood dripping on the floor. Joey had no idea who this was, or what was happening, but she backed up against the sink as bloody skin and tissues from his face dropped to the floor. He reached out to her, the teeth showing through his now absent cheek, his bloodshot eyes bulging and glowing a brighter green.

“Don’t you want to join my army Joey?” the man cackled. Joey finally screamed and cowered on the floor, closing her eyes tight. The man’s laughing rang in her ears, and over and over again she heard someone say…

“Holly. Holly. Holly. Holly.”

“Joey?”

Joey opened her eyes to see that Jordyn, Brian, Roderick, and Ian were there, despite it being the women’s restroom.

“Are you ok Joey? We heard you screaming from all the way down the hall.” Ian asked, concerned. Jordyn was crouched down, a hand on her shoulder. Through her tears, Joey looked over to see that the man was gone, and the floor was still shiny clean. Joey quickly wiped her tears away and stood up.

“I’m fine.” she said, taking her glasses off and wiping them on her shirt. “I just-I thought I saw something, but it’s gone now. Thank you for checking on me.”

The others silently exchanged glances as Joey left the bathroom.